


Family

by pupeez4eva



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Angst, Drabble, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Teenage!Aaron
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-14 01:35:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14760087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pupeez4eva/pseuds/pupeez4eva
Summary: "This village was swarming with Dingles but he felt more alone than he’d ever been." - A young Aaron moves to the village for the first time and struggles to adjust.





	Family

**Author's Note:**

> This is set right at the beginning of Aaron's storyline, when he comes to live with his mum in 2008. I wanted to explore how he might've been feeling at the time, especially in light of what we now know about what he went through with his dad.

The Dingles stuck together. The Dingles had each other’s backs. Except if it was him, apparently, because Aaron couldn’t remember the last time any of them had been there for him.

 

He’d barely been back in the village and he already wanted to leave, to put as much distance as he could between him and the others. They fought for their own. They stuck up for their own. It was what everyone told him, what Uncle Zak seemed so eager to spell out to him. He supposed he’d gotten a a small taste of it, when they’d saved him from the McFarlanes, when they’d all defended him when they'd come looking for him again, and when his mum had seemed so angry and protective on his behalf.

 

But then he remembered all of the years he’d spent with his dad. None of them had cared enough to visit, or to call, or to find out how he was. The great Dingles, always there for each other, ready to jump in and defend each other. Where had they been when he’d needed them? Where had they been when dad had hurt him? They hadn't cared. Maybe he wasn’t a Dingle by name, but he was a Dingle by blood, and didn’t that mean something to them? 

 

Instead, he’d been left alone for years. No one had been there to stick up for him, or to have his back. Even his own mum had left him.

 

He didn’t want to be here. He could tell they didn’t want him — Lisa thought he was a bad influence on Belle, his mum was getting fed up with him, even Zak’s patience was wearing thin. In a way it thrilled him, made him want to push harder, to see just how far that Dingle loyalty ran. What would he have to do to really make them snap, for them to push him out and turn their backs for good. They didn’t really care. They barely knew him — had never even bothered to try over the years — so why should he believe they actually gave a damn about him now? 

 

Push them, see how far he could go until they snapped. His mind flittered to his dad, and he pushed the thought away. All of a sudden he felt tired, and more alone than ever, and wasn’t that ridiculous when he was in the one place where he had more family than anywhere else?

 

This village was swarming with Dingles but he felt more alone than he’d ever been.

 


End file.
